Technology Woman

How Cell Phones Fail the Elderly

My elderly (childhood) nanny just bought a pre-paid cell phone and, naturally, I needed to help her set it up and teach her how to use it.  The phone was a great deal, she told me – just $99 for a year of free US and international calling!

Cheapest phone plan ever, right?  This is what the plan really looks like:

• She pre-pays an amount, and the money expires after a length of time.  The length of time depends on how much you pre-pay.
• On the days she uses her cell phone, she’s charged $0.99.
• If she calls another Verizon user (how does she know?), it’s free.  It’s also free on nights and weekends.
• Other US calls cost $0.05 / minute.
• International calling costs $1.49 / minute.

Confused?  Here’s a convenient map (yeah, you’re going to need to zoom in):

Note how there are multiple plans, and she probably didn’t select the one that’s best for her (Basic).  I’m not sure where she went wrong.  Maybe she couldn’t properly evaluate her average talk time, the timing and the density of her calls to evaluate whether the “per day” is offset by the cheaper minute plan and free night time calls?  Crazy!

I declined to get into the complexities of pre-pay expiration, as I’m not sure I understand it myself.  What happens if I buy $20 (which expires after 30 days) and then a week later I buy $50 (which expires in 90 days)?  What expires when?

Lest she might actually wrap her head too soon around all that, her cell phone offers a new source of confusion.  Navigation requires a careful mapping (on very small buttons, despite having purchased the largest phone they had) of on-screen buttons to keypad buttons, while trying to avoid the calendar (who uses calendar on a basic flip phone?), voice daily (oh no the phone is talking to me!), picture messaging, web browser, camera and text messaging (conveniently called “Messages” so as not to be confused with, say, voice messages.)  You try explaining to her that she merely has to map the location of the on-screen buttons to the funny looking dashes and the weird circular button on the phone.

You know what she needs?  A phone.  Preferably one with a dial tone, so that she knows it’s on.  Can someone make a flip phone with a dial tone please?  Or maybe a phone with a nice wizard interface?

Email is actually easier for her – at least I can write down instructions for her.

3 Business Ideas: Experiment Often, Carefully, and Singly

What have you learned in the past year?  Jill Foster of WomenGrowBusiness.com asked me this question and posted my response here: 3 Business Ideas: Experiment Often, Carefully, and Singly.  You can read it there or below where I’ve re-posted it.

——

I started CareerCup to solve one part of software engineering interviews: preparation. Candidates who are interviewing with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or other companies are historically under-prepared and consequently struggle to get hired. This hurts not only the candidates, but companies as well who can’t distinguish between bad candidates and poorly prepared candidates.

After launching CareerCup’s first (revenue generating) product in 2008, I spent the past year improving its products and services. In doing so, I’ve learned the following insights:

1. Be careful about your time is spent.
We all want to believe that we’re the best at anything, but sometimes we’re not. And, even if we are, not all jobs are worth our time. I recognize more and more that the old saying “if you want to do something right, you have to do it yourself” just isn’t true.

I now have some fantastic people working for me in the Philippines, India and in the US to write, manage customer support, and do development. With their help, I’ve managed to finish a technical interviewing book, software engineering interview video, and a technical recruiting service. I couldn’t do it without them!

2. Experiment often, carefully, and singly.

While I fully encourage people to research ideas thoroughly, research is only going to sell you so much. Sometimes, you just have to make the leap and experiment with an idea. Experiment often.

That said, look closely at how you’re judging the results of an experiment. Are you looking at revenue, or conversions? Depending on your approach to sales, this could be a big difference. Experiment carefully.

When experimenting, only run one experiment at a time. Yes, yes, I know you have a million ideas and you want to dive into all at once, but patience here will pay off. If you run three experiments at once, how will you ever know which one made the difference, and how much? Experiment singly.

And, if you want to be super advanced, look into standard error. A little bit of a statistics can help you understand what’s random and what’s real.

3. Be organized.

I feel like entrepreneurs are inherently disorganized – we’re always in such a rush to jump into things that we can get overwhelmed.

A bit of organization can reduce your stress by clearly outlining what you have to do. It gets rid of the nagging “Oh my god I have so much to do” feeling and lets you react properly. Maybe you’ll realize that you don’t have quite as much work as you thought, or maybe you’ll realize that you simply have to reassign some of the work.

Either way, you’ll feel better.

I maintain a to-do list with what I have to do (I use Remember The Milk, or whatever works for you). For paperwork, little details, filing expenses and such, I let the “forward” button handle that (that is, I forward things to my assistants to handle). And, I try to respond to emails instantly – you’ll have to do it eventually anyway, so the sooner you get it out of the way, the less time for which it’ll be hanging over your head.

How to Prevent Users from Circumventing Your Service

Many services are structured as follows: Person A pays Person B for a task or item, and the “finder” or “connector” service takes a cut. It’s a wonderful business model – someone else is doing all the “real” work, and you get a bit off the top.

The problem is that users are wise to this in recurring interactions. Once trust is established through a successful interaction, B will come back to A and cut a deal. Is the service taking a 10% cut when A pays B? Perfect. A will pay B 5% less, but will pay B directly. It’s a win-win for the users, and a big fat “lose” for the service.

Services must, therefore, offer an incentive to continue to use the service for repeated interactions. Consider the case of two very similar websites:

RentACoder

RentACoder, an outsourcing service, suffers from this problem and has been unsuccessful thus far at tackling it. For the first job between a provider and me, the provider has a strong incentive to work through RentACoder. The person doesn’t know me, and has no idea if I’ll pay them; RentACoder offers protection from that. However, once mutual trust has been established, they will, almost without fail, ask me to pay them directly.

Ironically, RentACoder’s attempts at attacking this problem probably worsen it. The service offers conflict resolution / protection — but only if you’ve been using their service for all communications. Their hope is, I believe, that you’ll be less likely to leave the service if you communicate via RentACoder.

However, conflict resolution – eg, will-they-pay-me-or-won’t-they – is primarily a benefit in the early stages of a resolution, not in longer term transactions. Additionally, this feature is only offered if all communication is through their platform. Users much prefer to use their existing mail and messaging tools, especially since RentACoder’s interface looks like craigslist got in a fight with linux – and lost. So, even if a user wanted conflict resolution, it likely wouldn’t be available to them.

And so, RentACoder loses the exact transactions it wants to maintain: the long-term ones.

oDesk

Surprisingly, oDesk does not suffer from this circumventing issue. In the 20 or so oDesk providers I’ve worked with over the last year, not one has asked me to pay them directly. Why? Because oDesk offers an incentive to both me and the provider to continue using them.

Employers prefer to pay through oDesk because they can track the worker’s hours. Even if one trusts a worker, concerns still arise when a task takes unusually long. oDesk providers install software which takes a random screenshot every couple of minutes. If an employer is unsure why a task took so long, the screenshots can relieve their concerns.

Employees prefer to work with oDesk because employers see long and continuous work assignments as implicit reference. Sure, employers could look at the worker’s reviews, but “grade inflation” renders reviews almost useless. However, 100+ hours of work for the same employer says something very strong about the candidate. By continuing to work through oDesk, employees boost their resume and their attractiveness to employers.

Thus, both employers and employees continue to work through oDesk, and oDesk reaps the benefits.

What This Means for Your Company

If you’re offering a service where people have an incentive to “cut you out,” think long and hard about how you can add value in repeated interactions. What are their problems? What can you solve?

In the case of outsourcing websites, employees face the problem of finding new jobs, and employers worry that employees are exaggerating time limits. oDesk has solved these pain points, and so we continue to work with them. RentACoder, however, is cut out of the picture.

Which service do you want to be?

PeopleOfWalmart launches with EmptySpaceAds!

If you haven’t checked out PeopleOfWalmart yet, you’re in for a treat. Pages of entertainment from America’s classiest individuals (yes, mother of mullet-baby, I’m speaking to you).

One of my favorite websites just got a little bit better: it just launched EmptySpaceAds! Move your mouse to the margins of the page and you’ll see the new ads come up.

EmptySpaceAds is the same start-up I was working for before I left to go back to school, so it’s really exciting for me to see this development.

Now, I know ads aren’t exactly exciting for most people – who likes ‘em? They replace regular content and get in your way as a result. That’s why EmptySpaceAds is so great – it’s in the margins, so it won’t replace any “real” content, and it doesn’t get in your way like many pop-up ads.

For publishers, it offers similar benefits. You can increase the number ads you show on a page (and therefore your revenue), or you can replace your ad units with EmptySpaceAds. Either way, you’ll see a boost in your revenue. And, best of all – you don’t have to sacrifice content that brings customers to your page.

Check them out at: PeopleOfWalmart.com and EmptySpaceAds.com.

Outsourcing Your Life in 8 Easy Steps

Supreme Court Ruling on School Strip Searches – And What It Means

Proposition 8: How Wording Made All the Difference

In an upsetting – but expected ruling – the CA Supreme Court voted to uphold Proposition 8, which reads:

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

52% of voters voted for Proposition 8; by NOM’s own admission, only 42% would have voted for it had it been clearly written.  It should have been a resounding failure, not a narrow success.

Think Less, Experiment More: 5 Lessons on Entrepreneurship

A guest blog post I wrote for Women Grow Business:

New! Affiliate Program for CareerCup

Good news bloggers and website owners!  CareerCup has just launched its new affiliate program.  CareerCup’s affiliate programs allows website owners to post a link / ad for CareerCup’s interview guide and, in return, collect some of the revenue from any sale.  Best of all, it’s super-easy to use!

Plan B for 17 year olds: Risky?

Mike Galanos wrote an opinion piece for the CNN asserting that Plan B is risky for 17 year olds. His argument, however, doesn’t hold water. Let’s take a look at it, bit by bit:

Think of a 17-year-old girl. Most of the time she’s a high school senior, still living at home with Mom and Dad.

Ok, thinking, thinking… got it: A 17 year old girl, terrified to admit to her parents that she not only has sex (gasp!), but had unprotected sex. Will she take the chance at pregnancy to avoid telling her parents? Yeah, probably.

She still needs her parents in the tough times. But they will be cut out of a traumatic situation.

Wait, what’s traumatic here? The sex? That’s not traumatic. Unprotected sex? Not traumatic, as long as it doesn’t result in pregnancy. So, actually, we’re preventing a traumatic situation.

Now keep in mind birth control pills require a doctor’s prescription, but a drug that is more powerful doesn’t?

Ok – so maybe we should make birth control pills over the counter too? And, also, while Plan B is more powerful per pill, but birth control is a much more serious health concern because you’re on it for weeks, months, years. The depression and other things that can result from birth control isn’t really a risk with Plan B.

Some argue that a girl can get an abortion without parental notification in some states, so why not Plan B? But just because those states got it wrong by leaving parents out of the loop doesn’t mean others should follow suit.

Let’s make sure we can follow his argument here (where the “>” means “more serious than”): Abortion > Plan B > Birth control pills. States allow abortion without parental consent, but that doesn’t imply allowing Plan B. But, earlier, he basically used the opposite logic: if states don’t allow birth control, why would they allow a more serious drug? Inconsistent logic.

In most states, minors can’t get a tattoo, body piercings or go to a tanning salon without a parent’s permission, but we are going to leave them alone to take Plan B.

Well, yes, this makes sense because of the consequences of not providing access to Plan B: pregnancy. What’s the consequence of not providing access to tattoos?

Timing is essential to the drug’s effectiveness, Plan B supporters say, so getting parents and doctors involved would unnecessarily delay the teen’s ability to pop the pill the “morning after.” Does it really take that long to get a prescription?

First, it can take a while if it’s on a weekend (and teens do have this tendency to have sex on weekends). Second, it would unnecessarily prevent the teen from telling her parents. Do you not know teenage girls? They don’t really like getting grounded or barred from seeing their boyfriends.

The New York Times reports that since 18-year-olds were allowed to get Plan B without a prescription in 2006, there has been no evidence of it having an effect on the country’s teen pregnancy or abortion rates.

True, but they also showed no increase in risky behaviors. So, 1 point for each side here.

We’re enabling teenagers to act carelessly with an easy way out.

Yeah! Let’s punish them with unplanned pregnancy! Brilliant!

“Teenagers are known for thinking they’re untouchable and here we are saying that they can continue to do that and that there aren’t any consequences.”

Ah, so you admit that teens tend to think that nothing bad could happen to them? So, given that attitude, if they have unprotected sex, will they tell their parents so that they can get Plan B? I didn’t think so.

The boyfriend will talk his girlfriend into unprotected sex with the promise of buying the “morning after pill” the next day.

Please, show me some data stating that this is a concern. Last I checked, boys were also scared of pregnancy – especially since, as you stated, Plan B is only 89% effective. (In fact, boys might be more scared of pregnancy, since they don’t get any say in abortion.)

Yes, this could encourage unprotected sex and that means a greater risk for sexually transmitted diseases.

(A) Studies have shown that it doesn’t increase promiscuity. (B) Isn’t Plan B like $40 a pop? I don’t think people are going to really rely on this as their sole method of birth control.

What about the 17-year-old girl who may get Plan B for her 15-year-old sophomore friend?

What about it? I’m ok with that, since it’s certainly better than the 15 year old not taking it at all.

Yes, teens have sex and difficult situations will arise, but should we open the door for our girls to go through this alone? That is not what is best for our daughters.

See, here’s the thing: Plan B supporters are trying to make sure your daughters don’t have to go through “this” at all (where “this” is an unplanned pregnancy).

And, allow me to make a few additional points:

1. The average age in the US for people to lose their virginity is about 17. So to say that parents need to be informed that their 17 year old is having sex is a little extreme. If you have a 17 year old, they’re probably having sex. This is not a crisis that needs to be averted. It’s normal.
2. When a 17 year old girl has to chose between taking Plan B and informing her parents, and not taking it at all, she just wouldn’t take Plan B. So, the parents won’t be informed that their teen is having sex anyway.
3. It’s not that I want parents to be uninformed. It’s that I don’t want unplanned pregnancies. Given that, I’ll take uninformed parents and fewer unplanned pregnancies.
4. In an entire article about why 17 year olds should need a prescription to get Plan B, Galanos never even responds to the core reason why many people disagree. That’s a rather glaring omission.